The Missing Piece In Your Professional Life

You know the feeling, you’ve been through the tough interview process with all its anxiety, you’ve had the elation and relief of being offered the role you wanted and you’ve got through the first month or perhaps the first 3 years!
We all know it takes time to get into a role – to work out how we will make our mark, to start building relationships with the key people and to find out the best places for a great sandwich. As time passes, even if our role is stressful, we relax into it as tasks, processes and people become more familiar.
How much we relax is the key point. You’ll often hear me talk about first impressions – whether at a pitch meeting, a networking event, an interview or other event.
What I also hope you have heard me talk about is the on-going, every day. How important it is to have a clear and consistent image.
Often, the missing piece in a person’s career is that they don’t dedicate enough thought to their internal profile. They are focused on what they are doing (rightly so) and think about what their clients think of them (also vital if they are client facing) but forget how important it is to maintain a positive personal image with those in the office.Why does internal profile matter?
Some may question why a personal image matters once they have proved themselves – shown they have the role under control. After all, shouldn’t it just be that that matters? It does really matter but so does being liked and having a positive personal image – being able to engage effectively with those in your organisation. After all, it is those people around you who input into your reviews and make decisions about which projects/clients you work on and importantly the promotions you are awarded, so internal profile matters. It is also those people you often need to work with to deliver great client work and so enabling your external image to be positive too.What?
This means you need to be known internally and remembered as you become more senior it is increasingly important that you are known across the company, not just in your team or division.
This means you do need to prove yourself in your work but also:

Be positively memorable

Be likeable so that when people have the choice they choose to work with you, rather than your peers.

Be consistent in who you are so your colleagues always know what they will get.

How?
To achieve the above does take some knowledge and skill but the starting point is thinking about who you are, your environment and what you want to be known for before how you will achieve it.
If you want help to consider your personal profile at work and how to improve it, do contact me [email protected] to see if I can help you.
Most of all, be proactive about what you communicateand how to your colleagues, they matter as much as your clients in terms of your career success! Don’t let your internal personal profile get forgotten and be the missing piece in your professional life.If you’d like to receive monthly emails from Inside Out Image, please complete your details below. You will receive a monthly email with articles related to personal impact and influence, as well as professional relationship building.

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